Chapter 3. Collection on Part of an Assessment*

Article 1. General Provisions and Definitions

2801. State policy. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the state and the intent of this chapter to provide for:

(a) The satisfaction and removal of any lien secured to any parcel of real property appearing on the current roll.

(b) The payment of taxes on any parcel of real property separately from the whole assessment, if the parcel (1) is described in any duly executed and recorded deed, purchase contract, deed of trust, mortgage, or final decree of court; or (2) has a separate valuation on the current roll.

Note.—Stats. 1968, p. 2434, in effect November 13, 1968, provides that the enactment of said act is intended to expressly disapprove any interpretation of Smith v. Anderson, 67 Cal.2d 635, which would require an assessor to make a separate valuation of an undivided interest in property for current or future years.

2802. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter:

(a) Improvements are not a parcel separate from the land on which they are situated.

(b) An undivided interest is a parcel separate from the whole assessment.

(c) A lien is the amount created by the assessment of personal property, or leasehold improvements, or possessory interests; or the amount levied against property by a taxing agency or revenue district when such amount is not determined by the application of a tax rate on a valuation of property. A lien includes any special assessment bond, or installment thereof, together with interest and charges authorized and accruing thereto. A lien also includes any charge of any nature whatsoever authorized by law to be levied against property by any taxing agency or revenue district.

Article 2. Payments

2811. Satisfaction of lien. Any person may apply to the tax collector to satisfy and remove any lien by paying the sum of the following:

(a) The amount computed by multiplying the assessed value of the personal property, or leasehold improvements, or possessory interests by the applicable tax rate for the current year, if the lien sought to be satisfied and removed was created by a determination of the value of personal property, or leasehold improvements, or possessory interests; or the amount of the lien of the special assessment; or the amount of any other lien authorized by law to be levied against real property.

(b) Delinquent penalties in an amount which bear the same proportion to the delinquent penalties in the whole assessment as the amount of the lien bears to the total taxes in the whole assessment.

(c) Costs computed in the same manner as provided for the computation of delinquent penalties.

2812. Amount due on remainder after satisfaction. The amount due on the remainder of the assessment shall be the difference between the amount due on the whole assessment and the amount paid to satisfy and remove the lien.

Article 3. Applications and Computations for Separate Assessments

2821. Separate valuation; application. Any person filing an affidavit of interest may apply to the tax collector to have any parcel separately valued on the current roll for the purpose of paying taxes. A county may, upon approval of the board of supervisors, require that the applicant notify the property owner.

The application shall be made during the current fiscal year, and shall set forth the fact that a duly executed and recorded deed, purchase contract, deed of trust, mortgage, or final decree of court describes the parcel sought to be separately valued. A county may, upon approval of the board of supervisors, allow these applications between July 1 and March 31.

The application may request that the tax created by the assessment of personal property, or leasehold improvements, or possessory interests on the whole assessment be allowed to remain as a lien on the parcel sought to be separately valued.

If any lien not determined by the application of a tax rate on a valuation of property has been levied or placed on the whole assessment, the application may be accompanied by the certification of the taxing agency or revenue district authorized by law to levy or place the lien, setting forth the specific amount of that portion of the lien levied or placed on the whole assessment which is to continue to be levied or placed on the parcel sought to be separately valued.

The board of supervisors may provide that a parcel with a lien against it and other property, pursuant to the Improvement Act of 1911 (Division 7 (commencing with Section 5000) of the Streets and Highways Code) or the Improvement Bond Act of 1915 (Division 10 (commencing with Section 8500) of the Streets and Highways Code) will not be separately valued unless a request has been made to the agency levying the bond lien for a division of land and bond. A copy of the requested division of land and bond shall accompany the request for separate property tax valuation.

Any separations of property pursuant to this section are for valuing property for tax purposes only, and are not intended to create a legal building site or to supersede requirements pursuant to zoning, building, lot split, or subdivision ordinances.

Once created, an individual interest parcel may be entered as a separate assessment on subsequent assessment rolls until the time that ownership of the interest is conveyed or until the original applicant or his or her agent requests that the parcel be recombined.

Upon authorization by ordinance by the board of supervisors, the county may charge a fee for actual costs incurred for the processing of an application for separate assessment, and the initial and ongoing costs of separate assessment, billings, and mailings. Fees shall be subject to Chapter 12.5 (commencing with Section 54985) of Part 1 of Division 2 of Title 5 of the Government Code, and may be billed separately or prior to initial separate tax bills, or both, or collected on subsequent tax bills, and shall be deposited in the county's general fund.

History.—Stats. 1972, p. 657, in effect March 7, 1973, added the second sentence to the first paragraph; added the second sentence to the second paragraph; and added the fifth, sixth, and seventh paragraphs. Stats. 1979, Ch. 1126, in effect January 1, 1979 deleted the former seventh paragraph which required tax collector to notify planning commission of all applications for separate valuation. Stats. 1985, Ch. 1367, effective January 1, 1986, added the seventh paragraph. Stats. 1988, Ch. 830, in effect January 1, 1989, substituted "these" for "such" after "prohibit", substituted "10 working days" for "10-day period", substituted "delinquency" for "delinquent", and substituted "10 working days preceding" for "10 day period prior to" before "June 30th" in the second sentence of the second paragraph; and added seventh paragraph. Stats. 1990, Ch. 126, in effect June 11, 1990, added parentheses before "Division" and after "Code" twice, deleted comma after "1911", "1915", and "Code" twice and in the fifth paragraph; and substituted "the time that" for "such time as" after "until" in the seventh paragraph. Stats. 1991, Ch. 532, in effect January 1, 1992, substituted "30" for "30th" after "June" in the second sentence of the second paragraph; substituted "county" for "tax collector" after "supervisors, the", substituted "a" for "an application" after "may charge", deleted "the" after "application for" and substituted "assessment, and the initial and ongoing costs of separate assessment, billings, and mailings" for "valuation of any parcel on the current roll" after "separate" in the first sentence and substituted "subject to" for "governed by the provisions of" after "shall be" and added ", and may be billed separately or prior to initial separate tax bills, or both, or collected on subsequent tax bills, and shall be deposited in the county's general fund" after "Code" in the second sentence of the eighth paragraph. Stats. 2011, Ch. 351 (SB 947), in effect January 1, 2012, substituted "allow these applications between July 1 and March 31" for "prohibit these applications during the 10 working days preceding each tax installment delinquency date and during the 10 working days preceding June 30 of each year" after "board of supervisors," in the second sentence of the second paragraph.

Note.—Stats. 1972, p. 658, provided that it was the intent of the Legislature that an application for separate valuation, regardless of whether it is or is not approved, does not create a legal building site.

Note.—Section 31 of Stats. 1988, Ch. 830, provided that this act shall be applicable to the 1989–90 fiscal year and fiscal years thereafter.

2823. Separate valuation of a parcel. (a) The county assessor shall determine a separate valuation on the parcel, and shall determine the valuation of the remaining parcel. The sum of the valuations of the parcels shall equal their total valuation before separation.

(b) A separate valuation shall not be made of any parcel covered by a subdivision map filed for record after the lien date immediately preceding the current fiscal year. However, this prohibition shall not apply in any county in which the board of supervisors provides for a separate valuation pursuant to an ordinance adopted by a majority vote of the board. In connection with the recording of a final subdivision map a segregation may nevertheless be made so as to include all of the land within the subdivision in a single parcel.

(c) A separate valuation shall not be made dividing any piece of property separately assessed in the original assessment into more than four parcels. However, this prohibition shall not apply in any county in which the board of supervisors so provides in an ordinance adopted by a majority vote of the board.

(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a separate valuation to divide any existing residential structure into a subdivision, as defined in Section 66424 of the Government Code, shall not be made until a subdivision final map or parcel map, as described in Sections 66434 and 66445, respectively, of the Government Code has been recorded as required by law. If the requirement for a parcel map is waived pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 66428 of the Government Code, then the assessor shall not assign any parcel numbers or prepare a separate assessment or separate valuation, unless the applicant provides a copy of the finding made by the legislative body or advisory agency, as required by that subdivision.

(e) With respect to nonresidential subdivisions, without regard to the number of parcels involved, which are covered by special assessment liens the bonds for which are owned by a county, the board of supervisors of that county may authorize the county assessor, auditor, and tax collector to prorate the amounts for past due property taxes and assessment liens, plus any interest and penalties that may have accrued thereon, among the various parcels in the subdivision. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the tax collector may then enter into an installment payment agreement with respect to the pending subdivision map and thereupon the agreement shall be deemed the equivalent of a certificate pursuant to Section 66492 of the Government Code for purposes of permitting the filing of the final map and shall be recorded together with the final map, provided that the past due property taxes, assessment liens, and the special assessment lien shall not be discharged of record by the agreement, but shall be prorated among the parcels created by the final map.

(f) If the application requested that the tax created by the assessment of personal property, or leasehold improvements, or possessory interests be allowed to remain as a lien on the parcel sought to be separately valued, and the assessor determines that the value of the parcel is sufficient to secure the payment of the tax, the assessor shall set forth the value of such personal property, or leasehold improvements, or possessory interests opposite the assessor's determination of the value of the parcel.

History.—Stats. 1970, p. 548, in effect November 23, 1970, added the second sentence of the second paragraph. Stats. 1987, Ch. 1378, in effect September 29, 1987, added the fourth paragraph and substituted "the assessor's" for "his" after "opposite" in the fifth paragraph. Stats. 1988, Ch. 141, in effect January 1, 1989, added the second sentence to the third paragraph. Stats. 1992, Ch. 523, in effect January 1, 1993, deleted "next preceding" after "the", and added "immediately . . . year" after "date", in the first sentence of the second paragraph. Stats. 2005, Ch. 281 (AB 14), in effect January 1, 2006, designated the former first, second, third, fourth, and fifth paragraphs as subdivisions (a), (b), (c), (e), and (f), respectively, and added subdivision (d). Stats. 2009, Ch. 204 (SB 822), in effect January 1, 2010, added the second sentence to subdivision (b).

Note—Section 2 of Stats. 1988, Ch. 141, provided that this act shall apply to property valuations for the 1989–90 fiscal year and fiscal years thereafter.

2824. Entry on roll. The assessor shall transmit the application to the auditor, who shall enter the descriptions and the valuations of the parcels on the roll, and shall compute the amount due thereon.

2825. Computation of tax. If the assessor has set forth the value of personal property, or leasehold improvements, or possessory interests opposite his determination of the value of the parcel, the amount due on the parcel is the sum of the following:

(a) That amount computed by multiplying the assessed value of the parcel by the applicable tax rate for the current year.

(b) That amount set forth in the certification of the taxing agency or revenue district as being the portion of the lien which is to continue to be levied or placed on the parcel.

(c) Delinquent penalties in an amount which bears the same proportion to the delinquent penalties in the whole assessment as the amount of taxes and liens on the parcel bears to the total amount of taxes and liens levied against the whole assessment.

(d) Costs computed in the same manner provided for the computation of delinquent penalties.

2826. Computation of tax. If the assessor has not set forth the value of personal property, or leasehold improvements, or possessory interests opposite his determination of the value of the parcel, the amount due on the parcel is the sum of the following:

(a) The amount computed by multiplying the assessed value of the parcel by the applicable tax rate for the current year.

(b) That amount of the tax on personal property, or leasehold improvements, or possessory interests computed by multiplying the assessed value by the applicable tax rate for the current year, which bears the same proportion as the value of the parcel bears to the value of the whole assessment excepting the value of such personal property, leasehold improvements, or possessory interests.

(c) The amount set forth in the certification of the taxing agency or revenue district as being the portion of the lien which is to continue to be levied or placed on the parcel.

(d) Delinquent penalties in an amount which bears the same proportion to the delinquent penalties in the whole assessment as the amount which is the sum of the amounts determined in (a) and in (b) and in (c) above bears to the total amount of taxes and liens levied against the whole assessment.

(e) Costs computed in the same manner as provided for the computation of delinquent penalties.

2827. Amount due on remaining parcel. The amount due on the remaining parcel shall be the difference between the amount due on the whole assessment and the amount due on the parcel separately assessed.

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